Not Like This
by JennaTalbot
Summary: When Ladybug is trapped and her predicament causes her to transform in front of Chat Noir, will he take the opportunity to find out who his partner really is under her mask?


Chat laid back on the concrete, trying to catch the wind that had been knocked out of him. That akuma had been a rough one, and had taken him and Ladybug the better part of the day to defeat. Chat had distracted the neon pink girl (he stopped paying attention to their made up names a long time ago, but their bizarre tastes in fashion never failed to assault his senses) while Ladybug used her Lucky Charm to get the pink lipstick tube away from her. In the process, he had been flung backwards and away from the battle after being hit with her oversized purse. What exactly had been in that girl's bag anyways…? Chat winced a bit at the memory. But he had seen the swarm of ladybugs that marked their success, and had seen a destroyed building get pieced back together.

Groaning, Chat sat up. He thought about going to find his lady and get their ceremonial fist-bump, but decided against it when he realized how exhausted he was. A cat-nap was long overdue. Suddenly, his ears twitched, and he turned his head when he thought he heard his name being called. After an akuma attack, that wasn't necessarily strange, especially when Alya was around. So basically always. When he didn't hear it again, he stretched out his baton, ready to make the trek home.

 _There._

He definitely heard his name this time, and it sounded like… Ladybug? Chat paled and immediately took off in the direction of the sound. He bounded over the buildings, arriving at the spot where they had finally beat the akuma. He looked around wildly, convinced his partner was somehow still in danger.

"Chat! Chat Noir! Up here! Here, you stupid kitty!"

Chat looked up and saw Ladybug hanging upside down from the Eiffel Tower. She must have tripped and gotten caught in something. He laughed, wondering how exactly his lady had ended up in that predicament. She spotted him and her cries intensified.

"CHAT NOIR! NOW!"

Chat's ears flattened a little at Ladybug's tone. It's not like she was in any danger up there… oh. _Oh._ Ladybug had used her Lucky Charm. Which meant that she only had five minutes until she transformed. And the time that Chat had spent getting thrown across Paris and laying on a rooftop probably amounted to… well somewhere just shy of five minutes if Ladybug's desperate tone was anything to go by. Which meant that any second now, she would be her civilian self.

Dangling 600 feet above Paris in front of everyone.

 _Oh._

His ears flattened against his head again as he raced upwards to where Ladybug was dangling. Not getting there in time was not an option, and he urged himself faster.

As he reached Ladybug, Chat could see the desperation in her eyes as she was still trying to free her leg, which had been caught in one of the lattices and was bent at an unnatural angle. No matter how Ladybug twisted and turned, she couldn't support her weight enough to get her leg free. And with her transformation so close she wasn't sure that she wanted to. Her civilian self wouldn't have a yoyo to swing safely to the ground with. Instead, it would be a more direct route down.

A bright light started emanating from her, and Chat quickly wrapped his arms around her, lifting her weight and finally freeing her leg. Ladybug groaned as Chat then pushed off from the tower, hoping to find somewhere safe from prying eyes now that Ladybug had transformed. Or at least Chat was pretty sure she had, but he was too scared to look. He had fantasized about this moment for so long, and this was absolutely not how he pictured it. If Ladybug revealed herself, he wanted it to be her choice, not because she was trapped and had no other choices.

He leapt over the rooftops, eyes looking everywhere but the girl still wrapped around him. He got a glimpse of her hair- still the same raven blue color- as it blew in the wind but he refused to look any closer. Shutting his eyes wasn't really an option if he was going to get them both to safety, and he tried to focus on that task. But his lady was in his arms and all he wanted was to know who she was… _no. Not like this_.

Chat kept his eyes up as he finally spotted the outskirts of Paris. He figured this would be far enough away from the crowd that had gathered where Ladybug had been trapped, and away from prying eyes. He just hoped his route had been discreet enough and that his body had blocked enough of hers to avoid any identification from being made by the onlookers.

Gently, he set his lady down on the rooftop of a small shop and immediately turned around. If he was facing the opposite direction, there was no way he could accidentally look at whoever was now with him.

"Chat…?" The girl asked hesitantly. The hurt in her voice was apparent, but Chat misinterpreted it, and guilt flooded over him.

"I, I'm sorry, I should have checked to make sure that you were alright first, I didn't think, your leg is probably-"

"It's fine Chat." The girl cut him off flatly.

Confusion replaced the guilt, and Chat was got the feeling that he no longer had any idea what was going on. "Ladyb- My Lady?" He asked, hoping for some sort of clarification.

"It's fine, I get it," she repeated in that same flat tone.

"Get what?" Chat asked. He now knew that he didn't know what was going on, but the sinking feeling in his stomach told him it was trouble.

The girl sighed. "There's no need to be cruel about it." Chat opened his mouth to protest, but the girl continued on. "You know who I am now, and clearly you don't want to see me. Like I said, I get it." The bitterness in her tone was palpable.

Chat's jaw dropped. "What?! No, that's not, that's not true at all!"

The girl just laughed, but there was no trace of humor in it.

"No, Ladybug I swear! I don't know who you are, I didn't look! I grabbed you from the top of the tower and came straight here. I'm not, I'm absolutely not disappointed, and even if I did look I never could be! I wanted, well I wanted to look down so badly but I didn't. And that's why… that's why I can't face you now. Because I know how much it means to you that our identities stay secret, and even though I want to know who you are and I want to tell you who I am- it doesn't matter because you don't want that. And I would never disrespect you like that Ladybug, never!" He continued in a faltering voice, "You believe me, right?"

The silence behind him was deafening. Chat shifted nervously from one foot to another, waiting for his lady to say something, anything. He jumped slightly as thin arms circled his chest in a hug.

"I'm sorry I doubted you Kitty," she murmured against his shoulder. "And thank you."

Chat leaned back into her embrace. "If you ever decide to tell me who you are under your mask, I want it to be your choice."

Her grip tightened for a moment. "That means more to me than you'll ever know," she whispered. Clearing her throat awkwardly, she released her hold on him. "Anyways, I've got food with me so I can recharge my kwami and find my way home from here, you don't have to stick around."

Chat frowned, even though she couldn't see. "I would rather stay here until you can transform again, just in case something else goes wrong… that crack in the concrete looks particularly foot shaped," he grinned, hoping to lighten the mood.

The girl pushed him playfully from behind. "You knock it off Kitty, not everyone can have your cat-like reflexes."

Chat could practically hear her eye roll. "That's just because I'm _pawsitively pawesome!"_

The girl behind him groaned. "You're terrible," she moaned.

"Oh come on, you know I'm the _cat's meow_!" He exaggerated his finger guns to the side so there was no way his partner could miss them.

That one earned him a giggle, albeit one that the girl quickly tried to cover. "Your puns are _cat-astrophic_ ," she muttered.

Chat gasped and pretended to swoon. "Do my ears deceive me? An actual pun, uttered from the lips of My Lady?"

"Yeah, yeah, don't get used to it," she responded, although Chat thought she sounded a bit pleased with herself. "Tikki's almost done eating, so I should be able to transform in a minute."

Chat tried to stomp on the disappointment that rose through him. Behind him, the girl yelled "spots on" and a bright light shone behind him.

"You can turn around now Chat," his partner spoke after a few moments of silence.

He let out a deep breath and turned around, to see his partner standing in front of him in her familiar red suit. She was smiling at him, and he couldn't help but smile back. Stepping forwards, she wrapped her arms around him yet again.

"I meant it, Chat. Thank you. For saving me, and for… for what you said. And what you did. And didn't do."

Chat returned the embrace. "Anything for you My Lady."

She pulled away, still smiling. "I'm going to head back now, so I'll catch you later alright?"

Chat just nodded, suddenly not sure if he could trust his voice. Ladybug gave him a small salute before throwing out her yoyo and swinging away. Chat exhaled the breath he hadn't realized he had been holding, and turned to head the other direction. Suddenly, he heard feet behind him. He turned around to see Ladybug standing there.

"I think you forgot something," she said mischievously.

Chat just stared at her blankly until Ladybug held out her fist. A smile spread across his face as realization dawned on him.

"Pound it!"


End file.
